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They all look great, Steve! I'm most intrigued by the Creme Brulee - what is inside?

The Creme Brulee is a white chocolate ganache flavored with several vanilla beans and a bit of cognac. There are a number of options for adding even more flavor to this one. You could add a bit of ground hard crack caramel to each piece which would further enhance the "brulee" flavor. You could also add a bit of jam. It's a wonderful piece and has proven very popular over time. It remains one of my strong sellers.

Steve LebowitzDoer of All ThingsSteven Howard Confections

Slicing a warm slab of bacon is a lot like giving a ferret a shave. No matter how careful you are, somebody's going to get hurt - Alton Brown, "Good Eats"

Which are your top sellers? Do your clients ever make requests for other chocolates?

Thanks! I'm very happy with this selection. I tend to keep certain pieces season after season; For example the Fleur de Sel Caramel, Milk Chocolate Truffle, Creme Brulee, Peanut Butter Cup, and Heart of Darkness. These consistently sell. The other pieces I tend to replace with other pieces I've done over the years, or with new pieces. The Caramel Apple is a variation of the apple caramel that someone brought to the eG workshop a few months ago. Where the piece we had at the workshop was a firm caramel, I chose to do a softer, more liquid caramel and put it in a milk chocolate shell. I do on occasion have people ask me about specific flavors. Last year I did the "Habano" from Greweling. It didn't sell terribly well, but it did have a small, dedicated following. My first week back at the market this year, someone asked me about it. Fortunately, I had modified the Hot Chocolate to incorporate a bit of cayenne pepper in the ganache and that made the customer happy. I also have requests for coconut pieces on occasion. I did a few of those over the years (Greweling's "Cocomel" being one). I figure though that I keep interest higher by changing things up from time to time. I've updated my signs on the display table so it's easier to change things out.

Steve LebowitzDoer of All ThingsSteven Howard Confections

Slicing a warm slab of bacon is a lot like giving a ferret a shave. No matter how careful you are, somebody's going to get hurt - Alton Brown, "Good Eats"

And, of course, I am interested in the caramel apple. How did you make that?

Tikidoc - I made this piece because I liked yours so much at the eG workshop. I bought some of the boiled cider jam from Woods Cider Mill after you posted the link on the workshop thread. Here is the formula I came up with.

I have been away for much too long! I was shocked to see changes in format! Much has been going on, including becoming a grandma! I found a nice method and made these for the Brit (circumcision) family event.

Hehe! Yes, well, been busy - end of school year as a high school teach, grandmothering almost daily in between etc! Will share with pleasure. On my way out now, but I will get back as soon as I have time. No need for anything more than manual dipping!

Okay, so although it is past midnight here...
You can use any contrasting colors. I prefer natural, but anything will work. Two methods:
1. In the bowl of chocolate that you are using to dip in, pipe in contrasting chocolate in swirls, lines, circles etc (the more you practice,the more you can get the specific effect you want). Then dip your piece into this, making sure to "grab" the contrasting color as you lift the piece out. When you do what you typically do to get the extra chocolate off, the desired effect settles in. If you are dipping in a machine like chocovision,for ex. as the bowl turns, the piped chocolate gets swirled and then you dip while this is happening... Play around...
2. Best to work with someone,but possible all alone. As you remove the piece from being dipped, before scraping/tapping etc the extra chocolate off, pipe contrasting choc onto the piece and then tap/scrape etc the excess off. DOing circles inside circles and then quickly fethering with a toothpick, and then tapping the excess off, makes a great design. Again, play around!

Its a cool look. I dont work with chocolate much, in fact I try not too as much as possible, I hate tempering the stuff, I can never seem to hit it spot on. But out of my own curiosity, what do you do with the chocolate after your done? Would you mix it all together and use it for a ganache? Would you still use it with a polycarbonate mold? I'm asking because, like on the cover of the book above, if you mix dark and white, would it not change the way it needs to be tempered? Or am I just overthinking things?

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minas6907,hi! The picture on the cover of what you posted is not exactly the same method. When using a maching with an attached conveyor belt by which the chocoalte undergoes coating and vibrating the effect is quite easily attained. When dipping you dont have to use a huge bowl/amount of chocolate and the piping contasting color onto the chocolate is actually not a lot of chocolate at all. Using milk and adding dark doesnt change it too much and is often something I do in no connection to dipping effects, but for color, flavor etc. If this goes back into a larger pool of chocolate after use, it is mostly undetectable and certainly has never been noticed by others or self in a negative way. If strong contrasting colors are used, like purple onto white chocolate, well then, use a small bowl...??

minas6907,hi! The picture on the cover of what you posted is not exactly the same method. When using a maching with an attached conveyor belt by which the chocoalte undergoes coating and vibrating the effect is quite easily attained. When dipping you dont have to use a huge bowl/amount of chocolate and the piping contasting color onto the chocolate is actually not a lot of chocolate at all. Using milk and adding dark doesnt change it too much and is often something I do in no connection to dipping effects, but for color, flavor etc. If this goes back into a larger pool of chocolate after use, it is mostly undetectable and certainly has never been noticed by others or self in a negative way. If strong contrasting colors are used, like purple onto white chocolate, well then, use a small bowl...??

I suppose if you were using purple chocolate - you could dip the item, then while it is still on the dipping fork, drizzle with the purple (second person would help), then tap and scrape over an empty bowl to get the colours to meld.

Thank you... probably should have remembered to put flavours in the post! :) The three layer piece is called "Tendre Praline" from Kirsten Tiballs' Savour School, I had a raspberry ganache in the egg and the ladybug was just a solid piece. I was quite proud of the eggs, that was the first time I'd worked with colour out of the classroom!